City council OKs two top veterans to lead Newark police

In April, when Newark police veteran Samuel DeMaio was appointed acting police director, there were few votes on the city council for giving him the job permanently. Shootings and murders continued to stun Newark and it seemed as if DeMaio would not achieve Mayor Cory Booker’s publicly stated criteria for getting the job: reducing the violence in Newark this summer.

Yet this week, DeMaio’s nomination was approved — by a unanimous council vote. The council appointed another Newark Police Department veteran, Sheilah Coley, as police chief — a post the governing body abolished just two years ago.

In Newark, the simultaneous usually points to the political.

Did some compromise get DeMaio in without opposition? One council member said he believes that, for Booker to get the man he wanted, the council should deliver what it believes the community wanted, a chief — as a buffer to the administration and a minority top cop in a city with a mostly minority population.

The chief’s position had been eliminated because a clash between then-Police Director Garry McCarthy and then-Police Chief Anthony Campos divided authority and loyalty within the department.

The politics in play do not, I think, diminish Coley’s record of service — or the historical significance of being the NPD’s first female police chief. DeMaio will be the chief executive, in charge of policy, strategy and budget. Coley will be in charge of day-to-day operations.

The problem for the council was, if not DeMaio, who? And how much infighting would be tolerable, given the uncompromising war being waged by those doing the shooting, killing and other crime in a city that has too few troops to send out against them.

However, the main reason DeMaio got the vote was that — between April and August — he won over the council and much of the community.

Councilwoman-at-large Mildred Crump had not been a fan and joined a call for DeMaio to release his internal affairs files to answer rumors about problems in his past. Then, “I watched him. He came to community meetings and he stayed,” she said. She also said DeMaio has listened to community concerns and is reinstating crime-fighting task forces and programs eliminated by McCarthy.

DeMaio brought back the mounted police and motorcycle cops that McCarthy said Newark could not afford. Despite the cost of gas used, the revenue that motorcycle and mounted cops generate from parking and moving violation tickets makes it cheaper to keep those squads rather than putting the officers in cars — and they create a positive rapport with the community, DeMaio told me.

I reminded DeMaio that, as McCarthy’s right-hand man, he carried out orders for the changes he is now undoing. “Did you advise McCarthy against them?” I asked. “When you work for someone, he has his vision. When you are in charge, you have your own vision,” DeMaio said.

West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice heads the committee on the police department. Rice said he voted for Coley because he believes it is too much for the police director to take on both sets of duties.

The NPD is also undergoing a Department of Justice review regarding allegations of police misconduct. Rice said he believes the NPD cannot be truly reformed from within, but that it will be helpful to have a police chief in place to carry out whatever remedies the feds ultimately order.

Rice echoed Crump’s reasons in voting for DeMaio. Both said they thought that expecting the crime problems to be solved this summer was not a fair test.

Rice also said he referred a resident with a problem to DeMaio. The director reported back to Rice that he helped the woman and told him she had gone to school with DeMaio’s sister. He is from Newark and connected to Newark in ways that will help him do his job, Rice said.

I watched DeMaio at one of the community forums. He didn’t make excuses. And people were mad about a lot of things. But, by the time he left, they were not mad at him.

“Wasn’t DeMaio just campaigning for the job, going to all those community meetings?” the cynical me asked.

“Doesn’t anybody who wants a job campaign for it?” the practical me answered.